For the cover of this issue, we bring you Seb Lester, a typographer and calligrapher living in the heart of Sussex, UK, who’s literally exploded into the public eye. He’s killing it across social media as well as in that funny old thing they call real life.

Always willing to keep broadening our horizons and testing our readers’ own boundaries and tastes, we have some fresh new talent alongside some of the more established names.

Our much-celebrated cover is from Japanese-American artist Audrey Kawasaki. A firm favourite of ours for a long time, she blends together a beautiful mix of delicate female forms with a dark manga influence. Incorporating Art Nouveau-inspired pattern work, wood grain and soft colours with subtly tortuous and erotic undertones her exotic hyperrealism is otherworldly.

This issue’s Diggin’ In The Crates sees the return of the hugely talented Jeff Soto to give us the rundown on some of the highlights of his extensive career and some of the directions he has explored over the course of his professional life.

Cute French couple Ella & Pitr give us a glimpse of their amazing partnership of eight years, showing how they double up on their creativity, travelling worldwide to paint while still holding it down as parents.

Dipping deep into the Antipodean pond, we look at the amazing, huge murals of Aussie, Fintan Magee and look through the refined lens of Nicole Reed’s camera. While we’re out that way we also hunker down with New Zealander Askew to chat about Pacific Island life and world politics.

Our main men in London, photographers Claude Crommelin, Mark Rigney of Hookedblog, NoLionsInEngland, and Paul Gray stomp the streets of London to find the finest examples of art in the streets, while Paul Green covers the Bristol scene to shine a light on the West Country.

The regular Instagram feature throws a spotlight on the slick snaps of Australian photographer, p1xels, with a nice mix of urban exploring, graffiti, architecture, inside and outside art and street scenes.

Mr Penfold holds it down for the UK, with his cartoon-style and colours as he gains confidence in his abstract illustrations. Also from the UK, we have fine pencil work from Steph Morris, getting freaky over sneakers as she shares her obsession.

Repping it hard for the girls, Polish painter Natalia Rak demonstrates her enviable skills across multiple mediums, from canvas to concrete.

We go through the looking glass to view art from the other side with Patrick Hull of Chicago-based Vertical Gallery in our Gallery Talk feature. Staying in the US, we also have man of the land, Spencer Keeton Cunningham, with his blend of skate styles and doodled motifs. And last but not least, heading further north, we check in with Canadian Sandra Chevrier and her awesome mix of comic book and photorealistic portraiture.

All in, there’s plenty to shout about and more than enough to fill the pages of our bigger-sized pages. Get yours online and in store now.

In VNA 26 we’ve managed to cram in large-scale muralists, fine art, graff writers who’ve transitioned to galleries, abstract art and even some skateboarding. From London and California, to New York and Penang by way of Bristol, we’ve scoured the world to bring you a mix of awesome artists we’ve just discovered alongside some of our old favourites who haven’t yet had their time to shine in VNA.

As for the cover artist, we’ve returned to the UK to chat to a hugely influential artist and a bit of a personal hero of ours, Robert Del Naja, a character from the art world perhaps better known by his musical moniker; Massive Attack’s 3D.

After our inaugural visit to Pow! Wow! Hawaii, we made the most of our contacts there, staying in touch with Augustine Kofie and going back to dig in the crates with Buff Monster. We’ve pulled out the stops to bring you some gallery talk with Jonathan LeVine, as well as crossing over to Australia to catch up with James Jirat Patradoon and Numskull.

We also feature 10101010101010101010, or Ten Ten for short, the mystical eastern styles of Calma, London-based print wizard, Aida, and US-artist, Greg Lamarche. To keep things fresh, we’ve also gone large with Lithuanian street painter Ernest Zacharevic and a little abstract too by chatting to Icelandic mark-maker, Katrin Fridriks.

With cover shots from the talented photographer James Sharrock, we’re stepping up our game all round and pushing the boat out with no less than 4 different covers available over the next couple of weeks.

VNA 26 Is available to buy online from www.verynearlyalmost.com or you can pick up a copy in your awesome local Newsagent – we’re now stocked at WHSmith in the UK and Barnes & Noble in the USA, as well as a whole host of smaller, independent stores.

As usual, it wouldn’t be a VNA launch without a big party to celebrate the release of the LTD Editions, and this time we have another dual-city launch in both London at Lazarides Outsiders and Bristol, at Weapon Of Choice Gallery, with delicious, beery support from our buddies at NYC’s Sixpoint Brewery.

Prolific NY-based street artist ELLE has a joint show with Martha Cooper opening at Mecka Gallery, Brooklyn, on Saturday 26th April. The show is a collaborative effort involving some rare, unusual photos from Martha, combined with some heavyweight, multi-disciplinary artwork from ELLE. Expect fire-extinguisher mayhem, screen-printed paper catwalk dresses and poignant pictures of kids playing in the streets. We caught up with ELLE to chat about her artwork, inspirations and that awkward moment when your arresting officer asks you out on a date.

January is notoriously a bit of a duff month in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s cold, everyone’s broke and you have to get back to the grind after an epic season of getting drunk off your face and pulling your work colleagues 3 nights a week.

So, to celebrate, INSA is offering creative people to win What better way to beat the January blues than with a MEGA AWESOME GIVEAWAY!!

INSA has put together a massive stack of rare and exclusive goodies, including:

To win, simply create something inspired by INSA’s work, this could be a drawing, some baked goods, a tattoo of INSA’s face somewhere intimate, or even a blue movie. It’s entirely up to you. The more permanent, ridiculous and embarrassing, the better. For the record, and our own amusement, those are mostly our suggestions, not INSA’s.

You have until the end of January to enter – entries can be emailed to info@insaland.com, or posted on Instagram with the #INSA_GRAM

VNA caught up with NY-based Polish yarn-bomber, Olek as she braved the coldest day of the century (it was literally minus 15ºC) in Manhattan to put up this piece as part of the continuing Little Italy Street Art (L.I.S.A.) Project.

Australia’s premier contemporary style and culture event, CARBON festival, kicks off its third year of forums this April with a lineup of inspiring creative entrepreneurs and artists hand-picked from all over the world.

Speakers flying in from around the globe to share their stories of struggle and success include founder of the acclaimed streetwear brand, Stussy; the one and only Shawn Stussy, who, apparently, has spent the last 12 or so years surfing in Hawaii, as well as the recently-turned septuagenarian senator of street art reportage, Martha Cooper.

Joining the melee will be the best daredevil duo since Batman and Robin, Dabs & Myla, and www.booooooom.com creator, Jeff Hamada, as well as Aussie artist and one-man social glue factory, Mark Drew, graffiti powerhouse, Barry Mcgee, and a whole host of other amazing minds.

Our old favourites New Era’s Australian brothers and sisters will be getting down and Adidas are slinging some weight behind the organizers at Acclaim Magazine too, so it looks like a monster weekend in Melbourne is to be had.

We’ll be down there bringing you daily round ups in between our daily beer intake and naps.